Milestones: 1866–1898

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Venezuela Boundary Dispute, 1895–1899

The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute officially began in 1841, when the Venezuelan
Government protested alleged British encroachment on Venezuelan territory. In
1814, Great Britain had acquired British Guiana (now Guyana) by treaty with the
Netherlands. Because the treaty did not define a western boundary, the British
commissioned Robert Schomburgk, a surveyor and naturalist, to delineate that
boundary. His 1835 survey resulted in what came to be known as the Schomburgk
Line, a boundary that effectively claimed an additional 30,000 square miles for
Guiana.

Robert Schomburgk

In 1841 Venezuela disputed the British delineation, claiming territorial
delineations established at the time of their independence from Spain. Venezuela
claimed its borders extended as far east as the Essequibo River—an effective
claim on two-thirds of British Guiana’s territory. When gold was discovered in
the disputed territory, Great Britain sought to further extend its reach,
claiming an additional 33,000 square miles west of the Schomburgk Line, an area
where gold had been discovered. In 1876 Venezuela protested, broke diplomatic
relations with Great Britain, and appealed to the United States for assistance,
citing the Monroe Doctrine as justification for U.S. involvement. For the next
19 years Venezuela repeatedly petitioned for U.S. assistance, calling on its
neighbor to the north to intervene by either sponsoring arbitration or
intervening with force. The United States responded by expressing concern, but
did little to facilitate a resolution.

In 1895, invoking the Monroe Doctrine, newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State
Richard Olney
sent a strongly-worded note to British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord
Salisbury, demanding that the British submit the boundary dispute to
arbitration. Salisbury response was that the Monroe Doctrine had no validity as
international law. The United States found that response unacceptable and in
December 1895, President Grover Cleveland asked Congress
for authorization to appoint a boundary commission, proposing that the
commission’s findings be enforced “by every means.” Congress passed the measure
unanimously and talk of war with Great Britain began to circulate in the U.S.
press.

Great Britain, under pressure in South Africa with the Boers and managing an
empire that spanned the globe, could ill afford another conflict. Lord
Salisbury’s government submitted the dispute to the American boundary commission
and said nothing else of the Monroe Doctrine. Venezuela enthusiastically
submitted to arbitration, certain that the commission would decide in its favor.
However, when the commission finally rendered a decision on October 3, 1899, it
directed that the border follow the Schomburgk Line. Although of rejection of
Great Britain’s increasingly extravagant claims, the ruling preserved the 1835
demarcation. Disappointed the Venezuelans quietly ratified the commission’s
finding. Of far greater significance, the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute
incident asserted for the first time a more outward-looking American foreign
policy, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. Internationally the incident
marked the United States as a world power and gave notice that under the Monroe
Doctrine it would exercise its claimed prerogatives in the Western
Hemisphere.